header image

HOME

This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

Interested in What I Create?



Bibliography

Thursday, January 01, 2026

entry arrow2:39 PM | Nancy Drew in the Public Domain!



What's in the public domain in 2026, freeing for public use intellectual property from 1930? I'm most excited about the first Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret of the Old Clock! But this is actually for the original version written by Mildred Wirt Benson [yes, "Carolyn Keene" is a pseudonym used by a collective of writers]. The 1959 revised yellow-cased version, published by Grosset and Dunlap and which most of everyone knows better [this is the version I first read] remains under copyright until 2055. There are key differences! Nancy's age is 16 in 1930 vs. 18 in 1959. There are no Bess, George, and Ned in the original text either. And the original run had some racist language as well, and slang that has not survived. I found this out the hard way when I happened to check out the original versions from the Dumaguete Public Library when I was in Grade 5, and I was shocked by the differences in tone and characters. That's when I first suspected that Nancy Drew was not what she seemed. So I wrote a letter to Carolyn Keene c/o Grosset and Dunlap [I used to write to my favorite authors back in the day], and got a nice package in return, including a history of the writing and publication of Nancy Drew, which revealed that Carolyn Keene [and Franklin W. Dixon of Hardy Boys!] did not, in fact, exist. I think this bombshell was one of my formative discoveries as a budding writer.

Read more about Public Doman Day here.

Labels: , ,


[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich



GO TO OLDER POSTS